L OCAL LIVING
District
9 DC
the checklist from 8
easy. Many local libraries are grateful for donations, which they sell to support other library programs. Sherwood Regional Library in Alexandria, for example, has a sale scheduled on July 3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. — perfect for filling any empty space your clean-out creates.
Oil your garage door To keep the biggest moving
part in your house working smoothly, spray lubricant on your garage door’s hinges, rollers and tracks. While you’re at it, look for signs of more-serious trouble: Inspect springs, hinges, cables and other parts for signs of wear. Check whether the door is balanced. To do this, close the door and disconnect the opener. Then lift the door manually. Make sure it goes up evenly and stays open. Test the reversing
mechanism, which is designed to keep the door from closing on
someone. While the door is open, place a piece of wood directly underneath. Then turn the door opener back on and signal the door to close. It should reverse the instant it touches the wood. If anything is amiss, call a
service technician from a garage door company. Adjusting a garage door isn’t a DIY project; there’s a serious risk of injury if you don’t do it right.
Watch for bats July is when bats are most
likely to show up indoors in the Washington area. But should you panic if one whizzes by as you’re watching TV? Of course not. A single bat might just be lost. Open a door, switch on a nearby outside light, and turn off indoor lights; the furry creature will probably fly out on its own. Never try to pick up a bat. Though the risk is low, you might get rabies if it bites. If you see several bats, you probably have a colony in your attic. By July, the young bats, called pups, are learning to fly but can’t yet fend for
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Landscape Planning FREE
Meet one of our 39 Landscape Architects and Designers at our Garden Centers to help plan your landscape to do-it-yourself, or for design and installation byMeadows Farms. See our website or call for locations and hours. Bring photos, sketches, measurements to assist the designer. New! Design and estimates by email. Visit our website for details.
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Bats can fit through quarter-inch cracks in houses. Check your attic to see if a colony is nesting there.
themselves. “Like teenagers, they don’t really mind mom,” says John Adcock, a wildlife-control expert based in College Park (800-486-0341). “You often don’t know they’re in your house until they go on the frequent-flier program and start buzzing around.”
Find coping advice from the
Maryland Department of Natural Resources by searching “bats” at
dnr.maryland.gov. Or call in a wildlife control expert to help you figure out where the bats are getting in. They can fit through cracks as narrow as a quarter-inch. You can start now to seal potential entries, but wait until September, after the babies
leave, to close off active routes. Even then, do it by installing flaps of window screen as one-way doors so you don’t trap any bats inside. Dead bats stink.
Use AC efficiently
With a few simple steps, you can significantly reduce the load on your air conditioner, saving on both your power bill and your contribution to global warming: Set the thermostat at 78 degrees or higher. Every degree below 78 degrees costs you about 8 percent more on your power bill. Install a ceiling fan and use it when people are in the room. Switch it off when the room is unoccupied. Limit the use of kitchen and
bath fans while the air conditioner runs. They exhaust the cool air you just paid for. Keep your air conditioner running efficiently by cleaning both the indoor and the outdoor coils. (Find specifics under DIY projects at the Family Handyman, www.
familyhandyman.com.)
localliving@washpost.com
THE WASHINGTON POST • THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2010
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